Rio Olympics 2016

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So what are people gonna follow?

Im probably gonna watch a bit of basketball, I love watching those superstars from USA demolish the smaller nations. LBJ, Curry, Westbrook aren't in, but it probably doesn't matter. They have incredibly depth, obviously. I haven't watched any of their pre matches, but I'd assume it will be a starting 5 of Irving, George, KD, Melo and Cousins.

Athletics is a must in the Olympics as well. I don't know anyone outside of the biggest stars, but I always enjoy track and fields.

Track is also fun. Never watching it apart from the Olympics, but seeing big roadies as favourites will make it more interesting to me. Especially Gaviria

I don't really know what else to follow, so that will probably be it.
 
Aside from the road racing, I'll follow tennis very closely. For the rest, mainly what's on TV. Likely mainly gonna be athletics, swimming, usual stuff. Basically a bunch of watching the Dutch fail and sometimes actually succeed.
 
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Valv.Piti said:
So what are people gonna follow?
I'm catching some water polo right now - lots of barely dressed, yummy looking men to look at. Can't complain about that. :D

Apparently water polo is actually a rougher sport than it my seem, they do all kinds of nasty stuff under the water. (Kicking, elbowing, biting, that kind of thing. As long as the refs don't see it anything goes, I suppose.)

On a different note - I fell asleep halfway through the parade of nations last night, once again NBC will make the Olympics insufferable to watch due to commercial breaks every three minutes. Thank goodness for recording devices, I can ff through all the ads!
 
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I watched a bit of 60kg Men's Judo, the level is pretty high, but I still dislike the fact that they've banned single and double leg takedowns and the fact that belly flopping is actually a smart move should be changed, you shoudn't be rewarded fo giving you opponent such a dominant position and it just looks bad, but those things will probably just stay the same...
 
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I usually take a look at the fencing but always leave disappointed that it isn't Hollywood sword fighting. You can't even really tell who hits who first.
 
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SeriousSam said:
I usually take a look at the fencing but always leave disappointed that it isn't Hollywood sword fighting. You can't even really tell who hits who first.
The fact that they're just fighting on that small strip always seemed silly for me, that eliminates all the lateral footwork that you could use to create angles, I'd have them compete on something like a wrestling mat, fencing without any lateral movement is just bs and not very realistic.
 
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Mayomaniac said:
SeriousSam said:
I usually take a look at the fencing but always leave disappointed that it isn't Hollywood sword fighting. You can't even really tell who hits who first.
The fact that they're just fighting on that small strip always seemed silly for me, that eliminates all the lateral footwork that you could use to create angles, I'd have them compete on something like a wrestling mat, fencing without any lateral movement is just bs and not very realistic.


Fencing is traditionally posh. Oh, the sweat. Just imagine!

Could be worse, though.

Could be golf.
 
Fencing should be a a set that's built to look like a pirate ship, with all sorts of obstacles the athletes need to work their way around, or make use of. Plus, with modern technology, they could stick cameras all over the place, and play parts of it back in super slow motion, so you could better see if someone got touched or not.

Too much regular US TV focuses on swimming, gymnastics and T&F (athletics), and mostly US athletes. You have to dig around to find more than a few seconds of other events usually.

To NBC's credit, Tom Brokaw did a great segment on the Amazon river. It was like watching a little documentary.
 
Foil is actually very hard to understand, as every point basically depends on the judge decision about who started attacking first. Epee instead is much more straightforward and fun to watch imho.
 
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Alpe d'Huez said:
Fencing should be a a set that's built to look like a pirate ship, with all sorts of obstacles the athletes need to work their way around, or make use of. Plus, with modern technology, they could stick cameras all over the place, and play parts of it back in super slow motion, so you could better see if someone got touched or not.

Too much regular US TV focuses on swimming, gymnastics and T&F (athletics), and mostly US athletes. You have to dig around to find more than a few seconds of other events usually.

To NBC's credit, Tom Brokaw did a great segment on the Amazon river. It was like watching a little documentary.


This. They've done this forever. I understand the need to focus on American athletes, particularly in those sports/events where the Americans are likely to do well (medal), but they are doing other sports and athletes and fans (yes, even the ones that usually tune in once in a while) a disservice. They would do well to show as much as they could, to try and give every American athlete some TV/radio time. They would also help grow or at least get more people interested in certain sports, certainly those sports that aren't 'mainstream.' NBC and its partners have more than enough funding and resources to do this at every Olympics, but choose not to. I understand, like I said above, a certain level of 'patriotism' and dare I say...exceptionalism, but they need to change their tune a lot.
 
Phelps just won his 19th Gold medal, and his leg on the 4 x 100 FS relay really made a difference. He's won eight Golds just in relays, and has one more left.

The old boy still has some fast twitch left, maybe he can surprise in the 100 fly.

Noticed that Hosszu, the Hungarian woman who won the 400 IM, is entered in four other individual events. If she should win them all, that would be an accomplishment worthy of comparison to Phelps' eight. Being from Hungary, she has no shot at winning three additional Golds, or probably medals of any kind, in the relays.
 
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Alpe d'Huez said:
Fencing should be a a set that's built to look like a pirate ship, with all sorts of obstacles the athletes need to work their way around, or make use of. Plus, with modern technology, they could stick cameras all over the place, and play parts of it back in super slow motion, so you could better see if someone got touched or not.

I'd make you Supreme Overlord of fencing.